with Augustus, which philosophy the predecessors of Antoninus
honored in addition to the other religions. He further says
that the Christian religion had suffered no harm since the time
of Augustus, but on the contrary had enjoyed all honor and
respect that any man could desire. Nero and Domitian, he says,
were alone persuaded by some malicious men to calumniate the
Christian religion, and this was the origin of the false
charges against the Christians. But this was corrected by the
emperors who immediately preceded Antoninus, who often by their
rescripts reproved those who attempted to trouble the
Christians. Hadrian, Antoninus' grandfather, wrote to many, and
among them to Fundanus, the governor of Asia. Antoninus Pius,
when Marcus was associated with him in the empire, wrote to the
cities that they must not trouble the Christians; among others,
to the people of Larissa, Thessalonica, the Athenians, and all
the Greeks. Melito concluded thus: "We are persuaded that thou
who hast about these things the same mind that they had, nay
rather one much more humane and philosophical, wilt do all that
we ask thee."--This Apology was written after A.D. 169, the
year in which Verus died, for it speaks of Marcus only and his
son Commodus. According to Melito's testimony, Christians had
only been punished for their religion in the time of Nero and
Domitian, and the persecutions began again in the time of M.
Antoninus, and were founded on his orders, which were abused,
as he seems to mean. He distinctly affirms "that the race of
the godly is now persecuted and harassed by fresh imperial
orders in Asia, a thing which had never happened before." But
we know that all this is not true, and that Christians had been
punished in Trajan's time.